Ages of Rage

It seems inevitable that anyone today willcome into contact with rage, whether theyare the target, product or producer of thisubiquitous mood.

Daily, Americans deal with recklessdrivers who are cut off in traffic or take part in motorist vs. cyclist brawls, sometimes even culminating into a fury of curse words.

But, there's a new rage in town and it is here to stay: Internet rage.

To shed light on this topic, The Actor'sGang Theatre in Culver City presented apanel discussion entitled, "The Age of Rage:Is the Internet Making Us Mean?" hosted byZocalo Public Square.

Moderated by Los Angeles Times columnistMeghan Daum, the panel shed light on how,in Daum's words, "the internet seems to nothave brought out our inner critic but for lack of a better word, our inner hater."

Also featured were media and internetpundits, Dick Meyer, author of "Why WeHate Us: American Discontent in the NewMillenium" as well as Time magazine writerLev Grossman to discuss who is to blamefor the new anger when we go online. Thepanel jumped right into a thought provokingdiscourse over the inner workings of America's growing e-culture and more importantly, the slur of hate comments that accrues with it.

Strikingly prevalent is the tendency forcomments to take on a life of their own,growing larger than the article to which they are attached.

The comments become an endless thread of self-referential conversation, often coated with the sort of things people wouldn't say face-to-face. In the end, anonymity "is enormous in why you get so much venom in comments," Meyer said, Allowing more room for pessimism, anonymity has now created a new default setting for speech and a tongue-in-cheek ambiance.

Compared with a face-to-face conversation,or even a phone conversation, where you canjudge people's moods and vocal inflections,it is easier to have rhetorical knuckle fighting when you are typing in front of a screen.

As an editorial director of NPR, Meyernoted that NPR launched comments inSeptember that required people to use their real name, which ultimately elevated the level of graciousness and civility on their website. Also, websites like Facebook and Twitter show a change in online commenting, by denying anonymous comments, thereforemitigating Internet meanness.

On Facebook, Grossman said, "you'reembedded in that social matrix, which allowsyou to behave properly and not be a jerk."Although the capacity for online anger is profound, Meyer admits that "sometimesit's fun to be angry." Echoing the sentiment,Grossman added, "We really underrate howenjoyable anger is.

There is a reason why people indulge in thisbehavior." Claiming to not be above outburstsof Internet coldness, Grossman further added,"it's incredibly empowering. The Internet is a very democratic place and its very flat, so no one is really distinguished from each other in terms of status, and I thinkthere is a tremendous need to feel better than other people. There aren't many other ways to do it these days, so when people get a little taste of that, it's addicting."

There is a pattern of kinship that can comefrom hating something. That's why in a lot ofonline balkanized communities, they are allabout defending themselves, contradistinction, and hostility to other groups, which is what Grossman discovered when he wrote about the video game "Halo for Time."

"The torrent of hatred I received inresponse to that piece was just enormous,"said Grossman. Even though he embodiesthe ever-enthused and ardent video gamer,his critics seemed to believe that, "the rights to their subculture exists with them, and it cannot be taken from them."

An underlying cause for this epidemic "isthe amount of information in a day that ismediated, that is not directly observed, butcomes to use through some sort of device,"Meyer added.

Technological devices like a Blackberryor a screen of some sort relays informationto people in a way that's really different than throughout the rest of human history, which Meyer said "distorts a lot of our emotional buttons."

For example, the latest target of ourcollective anger, Daum noted, is NadyaSuleman, who recently gave birth tooctuplets. With an alarmingly high numberof 14 children, Suleman became a target formedia exploitation, vitriol and jaw droppingfascination.

Daum noticed how the online commentsconcerning Suleman "became a genre ofthemselves." Procuring a tone of incredibledisgust, the comments demonstrate the wayrage really gets stirred up. It's hard to tell whether the commenting feature tends toattract hateful people or somehow we becomehateful when we comment.

Maybe thesecomments are simply part and parcel to thesublime magnificence of the Internet.Maybe Meghan Daum is right, stating:"there was a time when there was righteousanger in this country that was directed towards a worthy causes and that time seems to have passed."